Preservation, Recreation Planned for Park Project
By Denise Allen Membreno
Canoeists and kayakers will be able to experience the thrill of white water with the completion of two proposed parks in Franklin County. Walking trails, a visitors center, amphitheater and the Ward Barton Wildlife Foundation Outdoor Education Area also are part of a planned two-phase project designed to utilize and strengthen one of Franklin County’s natural resources, the Pigg River.
“Our goals are to improve water quality and improve recreational access to the river, but unfortunately for the Pigg, it has two dams on it,” said Scott Martin, director of Commerce and Leisure for Franklin County.
The dams are the veterans’ park dam, a low-head dam just four feet tall located in Rocky Mount, and the 22-foot power dam on the Pigg River east of Rocky Mount. Removing the dams is the first step to completing the project; not only will that help create recreational activities, but it will improve the habitat of native wildlife.
“Those two dams block passages of some of our native species, chief of which is the Roanoke logperch,” said Martin. “The logperch is the only federally listed endangered species in that river, and it’s really only found in about three rivers in the whole wide world.”
A chemical spill in the 1970s killed off many of the Roanoke logperch, which used to migrate up and down the river.
“One of the chief reasons the Roanoke logperch is in danger is because of the presence of our dams and reservoirs that isolated the population,” explained Martin. “They use to move all over where Smith Mountain Lake is now. They can’t handle lakes; they only like moving water. “
Martin said plans are to start work at the veterans’ park first. He said he is hoping to bid out the job in the fall so construction can take place in the winter of 2009.
The Board of Supervisors has given the green light to start the design work and permit process. Once the design is complete, it will go back to the supervisors who then will decide if the project can move forward to the bidding process.
Charles Wagner, chairman of the Franklin County Board of Supervisors and Rocky Mount District representative, said the veterans’ park governing board has voiced support for the plan to add the white-water attraction to the park. The town of Rocky Mount also is working with the county on the white-water facilities.
“We’re getting some funds through grants and some through DGIF [Department of Game and Inland Fishery],” said Wagner. “We haven’t put all the funding [for both phases] together yet, but I’m hoping as organizations hear about what we’re doing, we’ll have public- private partnerships.”
“First, we will be taking the low-head dam and converting it into a series of fish ladders,” said Martin. “We’re going to allow the reservoir to remain behind that low-head dam because the town of Rocky Mount is looking at it as a possible water-withdrawal facility, but we’ll build steps in front of it that allow boats to go down it and fish to get up it.”
The second phase of the project is removal of the old power dam. The removal of the dam itself is not the problem, it is the 300,000 cubic feet of silt that has collected behind the dam. Martin said tests for toxins “indicated acceptable background levels thus permitting disturbance and therefore removal.”
That is good news for the project because a high level of toxins would have increased the removal costs. Now the county needs to determine the best avenue for dealing with the silt — removing it or planting it to keep the silt in place. Martin stressed that none of the silt will be allowed to travel downstream.
“We’ve already begun our work on the Pigg River Power Dam project,” he said. “People can’t see it; we’ve begun our monitoring, our science work behind it. We hope to secure more grant money in the fall and begin our engineering documents for how you take it down.”
The county is exploring options for removing the power dam and silt, all of which have varying price tags. According to Martin, it is the silt removal that will increase the cost and require careful planning.
Martin said the goal is to have the white-water facility at the power dam complete by 2010. As funding becomes available, the land attractions such as a visitors center, amphitheater and rock- climbing wall will be added.
The conceptual plan for the white-water facilities was done by Recreational Engineering and Planning of Boulder, Colo. One of the lead designers was Scott Shipley, a four-time international kayaking champion and Olympian in 1996 and 2000. Shipley helped designed the largest man-made white-water park in the world located in Charlotte, N.C. It’s even larger than the one in Sydney, Australia, used in the 2000 Olympic Games.
The Franklin County parks will be all natural because no pumps will be used, said Martin.
“The white-water park component is taking features such as ledges and rock gardens and things like that that are found naturally in the Pigg River, and the Roanoke River for that matter, and then restoring the river to its natural course,” said Martin.
He said there likely would be “about 20 days a year when the water flow is high enough to create some wave features that are attractive to folks who love white water.”
Paddlers will be able to go online and check the flow of the river and the size of the waves. Martin said existing storm-water gauges will help provide this information.
“There are a lot of people in Franklin County who enjoy going on the rivers and [who] travel to other places to canoe,” said Wagner. “My trip to Charlotte was an eye-opener; just to see what can be done with water. I think opening up the river will be good, and the economic-development aspect of it is good.”
The exact shape of the water features has yet to be determined. And there are still some hurdles with the Department of Environmental Quality and DGIF to overcome.
Franklin County will work with the Department of Environmental Quality and DGIF to determine the designs of both the veterans’ park and power dam white-water facilities. Martin said this will ensure the best plan for environment.
“This is a really big deal,” said Martin. “It’s the first time this type of in-stream project has been proposed in Virginia. We know we have people in Virginia and North Carolina watching us very closely to see how we do it.”
Wildlife officials from Virginia Tech and the Ward Burton Wildlife Foundation already are monitoring the water and the fish population to get a before-, during- and-after-the-project view of the river.
Martin said he envisioned school groups touring the area to learn about nature.
“Franklin County wants to be the best place in Virginia to raise a family, and we want to keep children involved in nature,” said Martin. “This is no different than a softball complex or baseball complex. It’s an outdoor park complex and it will position us uniquely in the region.”
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